Congressman Accused of Harassment Resigns

Representative Eric J. Massa, a freshman Democrat from upstate New York who faces an investigation after being accused of harassing a male aide, said Friday that he would resign next week.

Mr. Massa was reported to the House ethics committee last month after a member of his Congressional staff accused him of harassment, according to a senior Congressional official who would speak only on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter.

Mr. Massa, who represents New York’s 29th District, abandoned his re-election campaign on Wednesday, after the accusation became public, saying then that he would retire at the end of his term.

In a statement that announced he would resign Monday, Mr. Massa expressed resentment at the handling of the accusation against him. “After I decided not to run again I was told, for the first time, that a member of my staff believed I had made statements that made him feel ‘uncomfortable,’ ” he wrote. “I was told that a report had been filed with the Congressional ethics committee. At no point prior to this had any member of the ethics committee communicated with me directly.”

Mr. Massa said he learned of the complaint only by reading it on the Internet. He insisted that he had already decided to abandon his re-election bid for medical reasons.

“There is no doubt in my mind,” he continued, “that I did in fact use language in the privacy of my own home and in my inner office that after 24 years in the Navy might make a chief petty officer feel uncomfortable. In fact, there is no doubt that this ethics issue is my fault and mine alone.”

Mr. Massa, 50, said he was leaving “with a profound sense of failure and a deep apology.”

The 29th District extends from Elmira almost to Lake Erie, and from the Pennsylvania border to Rochester.

His travails had posed the latest ethical distraction for House Democrats as they try to push through a health care bill and prepare for what will be challenging midterm elections this fall.

On Wednesday, Representative Charles B. Rangel, Democrat of New York, relinquished his powerful post as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee after he was admonished by the House ethics committee for accepting corporate-sponsored trips to the Caribbean.

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Eric J. Massa

Along with the calls for Gov. David A. Paterson’s resignation as he faces investigation over a domestic violence episode involving a top aide and an inquiry concerning the solicitation of tickets to the World Series, the Democratic Party has become vulnerable to the same criticism about a culture of corruption that Democrats used against Republicans to win control of Congress in 2006.

In the short term, Mr. Massa’s resignation leaves Democrats working to maintain their hold on a hard-won seat, in a district where Republicans outnumber Democrats by more than 45,000 voters. Mr. Paterson could call a special election for the seat as soon as next month, although he could also let it remain vacant until the November election.

Though Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, barely won Mr. Massa’s district with 51 percent of the vote in the 2008 presidential election, the race to succeed Mr. Massa could be much more difficult for Democrats, said Representative Steve Israel of Long Island, the chief national recruiter for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

“It’s as tough a district as they come,” Mr. Israel said. “But that doesn’t mean we surrender. This will be our third uphill battle in New York in four years, but our calves are getting conditioned.”

Mr. Massa received a diagnosis of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma near the end of his Navy career. He later recovered.

A Republican who switched to the Democratic Party because of his opposition to the Iraq war, Mr. Massa lost in his first try to win the House seat in 2006. He was successful two years later, defeating the Republican incumbent, John R. Kuhl Jr.

He was a proponent of a single-payer health care system and was among 39 House Democrats to vote against health care legislation, saying it did not do enough to rein in costs.

Mr. Massa has openly encouraged one Democrat, Mayor Shawn Hogan of Hornell, to seek the seat. Others who are said to be interested are the Assembly members Susan John, David Koon and Barbara Lifton, all from the Rochester area; a businessman, David Nachbar, who briefly ran against Mr. Massa in the 2006 primary; and Mayor Ellen Polimeni of Canandaigua.

In his statement, Mr. Massa acknowledged falling short of the standards he had set for himself. Now, he added, “It is not enough to simply talk the talk, but rather I must take action to hold myself accountable.”

A version of this article appears in print on March 6, 2010, on page A16 of the New York edition with the headline: Representative Facing Harassment Accusation Will Resign. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe